Right around 1990, it seemed like every band in Manchester, England got to make a record. It was like they were going door-to-door and offering recording contracts. “Thank you for buying the Encyclopedia Britannica, here’s your studio time.” There were no complaint about this from college radio. The airwaves that beamed out to the left side of radio dials were filled with trippy, loping pop gems. For a time, it almost seemed that no other style could penetrate, at least until Nirvana and Pearl Jam ushered in the grunge era and we really discovered how monotonous and homogeneous “alternative” could … Continue reading One for Friday: The Mock Turtles, “And Then She Smiles”

While I try to not to be stuck in the past about such things, I’m always pleased to rediscover one of the songs or artists that was a major part of my youthful college radio days. It’s especially nice if the process is triggered in a unique way. Not just stumbling on a forgotten disc while scanning they collection or hearing the song on the radio (although with most of the music that has slipped to the back of my memory, hearing it on a radio station these days would beyond unexpected to staggering), but instead a route that never … Continue reading One for Friday: Lloyd Cole, “She’s a Girl and I’m a Man”